Healthcare organizations such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (e.g. The Red Cross) and hospitals constantly seek out volunteers, financial donors and in-kind donors to support their charitable healthcare operations around the world. Typically cash-conscious non-profit organizations, these healthcare organizations are confronted by the logistical and operational burdens of continuously staffing, provisioning and funding their various efforts to provide healthcare services to underserved regions domestically and internationally. The continuous process of managing multiple healthcare projects requires substantial overhead that diverts time and financial resources away from being applied directly towards providing care to those in need.
Despite the recent explosion of online portals and social networking applications, conventional websites are generally inadequate to serve the needs of the volunteer healthcare community, especially the unique needs of healthcare organizations. For one, given the variety of hidden healthcare needs to be addressed over a wide geographical scope, healthcare organizations cannot rely on postings to attract sufficient volunteers or funding. Even if they have been able to secure sufficient funding, equipment or supplies for projects, NGOs often have a difficult time finding a sufficient number of skilled volunteers to staff their projects. Even after recruiting a sufficient team of volunteers for their projects, managing and organizing the team becomes a daunting and highly inefficient task. Conventional approaches that merely rely on project postings seeking volunteers (like a job posting) do not typically result in a sufficient number or level of volunteers responding to those posts. Those volunteers who are motivated to volunteer often find it difficult to create and manage the logistics of a volunteering opportunity, including raising funds, managing necessary licensing and arranging travel and supplies. Furthermore, patients who are either uninsured or underinsured find it difficult to find safety net providers, volunteer providers, county hospitals and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) to provide them with the necessary treatment at a reduced or no cost. Donors, in turn, are often frustrated as it is difficult to view or monitor the use of their cash and in-kind donations, especially during natural disaster response scenarios, when a large amount of donations are received in a short amount of time.
The shortcomings of coordinating providing effective healthcare services using volunteers are especially evident in public health events such as natural or man-made disasters. In addition to problems relating to unreliable or compromised voice and data communications, there are also recurrent problems in coordinating the even and adequate staffing of hospitals, triage centers and other volunteer receiving areas around a disaster scene. This lack of coordination results in an unpredictable and uneven ability to care for disaster victims.
For at least the above reasons, conventional approaches to online communities and social networking still fall short of the special needs required in the context of connecting healthcare volunteers, financial and in-kind donors and healthcare organizations. In view of these limitations of the conventional art, systems and methods for facilitating improved communication and coordination among healthcare volunteers, donors, patients and healthcare organizations are desirable.